


escape was only an option

by Yusariis



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: (also kinda), Canon Divergence, Fix-It Fic (kinda), Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, definitely a small scuffle happens, every rhackie has that fic where chapter 5 happened differently so here's mine, from the 2020 rhack zine, no outright romance but know the feels are there, please, yandere!jack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-20
Updated: 2020-10-20
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:01:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27113684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yusariis/pseuds/Yusariis
Summary: A re-imagining of the Endoskeleton debacle from Chapter 5. Rhys starts to escape with Fiona and Sasha, only to come to personal conclusions for Jack's behavior. With this, he decides to return to Jack's office to face down Jack at his very worst  - emotionally vulnerable.
Relationships: Handsome Jack/Rhys (Borderlands)
Comments: 17
Kudos: 60





	escape was only an option

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for the 2020 Rhack Zine, and cross-posted to ao3! I hope everyone enjoys this - I worked super hard on it~

Rhys hates suffering consequences for his actions.

After dropping out of the Dead Body chute, Rhys shambles behind Sasha and Fiona so that they could flee Helios. He knows that he’s dragging behind them, but couldn’t seem to get over the pain. Physically, he was pretty sure he had a broken rib. Emotionally, he couldn’t disentangle Handsome Jack’s laughter from his ears. As much as Jack’s jeering had spiked an anger, it was the laughing -- a tyrant’s sheer delight at cruelty -- that really put Rhys on edge. 

Still... if he really thought about it, the Dead Body chute hadn’t been active. Jack let him live, at the very least, for a more personal dismembering later.

_ You’re not going anywhere _ , Jack had said. His rambling reached a frothy pitch.  _ No one turns their back on me. _

Those lines turn over and over again in Rhys’ head, transfiguring each time:

_ You’re  _ **_not_ ** _ going _ **_anywhere._ **

_ You’re not  _ **_going._ ** __

_ N _ **_o_ ** _ one  _ **_leaves._ ** __

_ Y _ **_o_ ** _ u _ **_’re_ **

**_n_ ** _ o _ **_t_ ** __

**_l_ ** _ e _ **_a_ ** _ vi _ **_ng_ ** _. _ __

**_You’re not leaving me._ **

“...Oh, son of a bitch,” Rhys groans, slowing to a stop. Fiona hears him and turns.

“What is it?” She asks, seeing his face. “Rhys, what-?” 

“It -- it’s stupid,” Rhys grumbles as he fishes the Gortys piece out of his pocket. “Here,” he says, tossing it to Sasha. “Take it and get to the hangar bay and I’ll meet up with you. I--” he looks back, his steps stuttering backwards, “I gotta take care of something.”

Confusion wedges between him and them for a beat, but only for that. The realization comes in much more quickly. And much harsher.

“You can’t be serious--” Sasha moans. “You wanna go _back_? To _him_?”

“Oh, I think he’s serious,” Fiona interjects, pointing a finger. “And if you do? I don’t think I can forgive you for this.”

Rhys grimaces, walking backwards defensively. “Okay, and -- uhm, we’ll put a pin in that, okay?”

“Put a pin in us forgiving you?” Fiona purses with crossed arms. Sasha groans and covers her face.

“It’s all gonna be fine! I know what this is about!” Rhys yells back to them, limping at full speed. “I hope.”

Rhys is pretty sure that Jack has eyes everywhere now (at least, he’s got control of the cameras) but for some reason the man on the monitor looks utterly baffled to see him. Rhys gets halfway through opening the trapdoor with his mechanical arm before Jack stops gaping.

“What--” Jack starts, “What, what what, what -- your little -- uh, little,  _ buddies _ , down there, don’t want your two-faced ass near them either,  _ huh _ ?” He jabs, clearly not panicking. “So now you’ve come  _ crawling _ back to ol’ Jack?”

“Yeaaah, not...” Rhys pushes himself out of the hole in time to miss a forceful snap that could have, horrifyingly, cut him in half. “Not really? Not how I’d describe it?”

“No, of course not,” Jack says, clearing his throat, “Just couldn’t think of anything else to describe you moving around on your hands and knees right now.” 

“ _ Ugh _ . Look, I--” Rhys starts, standing up, “I’m here to talk.”

“Talk?” The screen jerks forward, right up against Rhys’ chest and pushes him backwards, against the desk. “You want to talk, all of a sudden?”

“Look -- you just don’t want me to leave, right?” Rhys starts, shifting away best he can, “I don’t want to either--”

“Are you kidding me?” Jack rages, wide-eyed and incredulous. “Do you think I couldn’t  _ hear _ you down there? Promising two bandits you’d meet up with them? No! No no, no, see,  _ talking _ . Is over. Rhysie.”

“But we never even  _ started _ \--” Rhys yelps as he’s shoved backwards. In the corner of his eye, he catches the light glint off of the endoskeleton. It’s Jack’s favorite color, just like his arm. “It’s not the same, Jack!” Rhys looks back at him, “That’s not the same as me staying!”

“Shut! Up!” Jack bumps Rhys once more.

"Stop that!" Rhys shoves back this time. “You really think you can muscle me into killing myself?”

“Of course not,” Jack smiles like a snake. “I just needed to get you behind the desk, idiot.”

Any prepared speeches die in Rhys’ throat. He looks where he’s standing, between the chair and the same endoskeleton that started this whole shitshow.

_ Uh-oh. _

Something jabs into his skull - Rhys gasps at the sparks behind his eyes. 

“I told you,” Jack growls, dark and inhuman, “Nobody turns their back on me - not anymore.” There’s an overload of data and a current runs through Rhys’ circuits. It passes through the brain and into his veins. “Everyone!” Jack huffs,  “Everyone thinks they can screw me over! That they can just up and -- haha, leave! And not think twice about me! But Handsome Jack doesn’t play kind to bandits or betrayers....” Rhys’ body starts convulsing and falls into the chair. Metal wraps around his wrists. His ECHOEye goes on the fritz, wide and out of control the way Jack was. Almost like it---

like it was connected.

And he still has Jack’s icebreaker.

Rhys grits his teeth, rallying his body’s motor skills to suppress the codes infiltrating his hardware. Just for a few seconds, he has to try to keep Jack talking.

“Caaaaan’t… beee…. e-e-eeeeeveryone,” Rhys grunts, barely coherent, through his locked jaw.

“...Oh,” Jack says, dangerously soft, dangerously low, “It can’t be, huh?”

There’s stimulation behind his eyes, wires crossing in his head. A flickering hologram appears, facing Rhys. “Did you know my second wife left me? We had it so good… but she had no  _ vision _ .” Jack leans forward. “And you don’t even want to know what happened to the first one. See, she was murdered. By Angel, our daughter.”

Rhys reaches out in his mind, despite the backlight of his eye flickering in and out. Whatever he’s picking up will be near unreadable when his wiring goes dark. He readies the hack in advance.

“My allies stabbed me in the back - my ex-girlfriend was ready to throw a whole colony of people away _ just _ to screw me over.”

Rhys pushes through, following the thread of code feeding into him from Helios. He’s pulling as quickly as he can, but the info he needs is scrambled from the overload. Jack doesn’t seem to notice in favor of his breakdown. 

“The irony of it all is that I _always_ protected Angel, even from herself. But before she was killed, she betrayed me, too. I guess I should have known; saw the warning signs. I failed her.”

It cracks. Rhys pushes forward and starts eating up codes and releasing rewrites.

“But this?” Jack scoffs, bitter and besieged. “Being backstabbed? By you?” Jack clicks his tongue with an disapproving shake of his head, like scolding a child. “No,” he drawls, “No, that’s not happening. Y’know what  _ is  _ happening, Rhysie? You thinking what I’m thinking?” Jack sneers, “Well, probably not. I’m betting you can’t do any thinking right now, can ya?”

The last string of numbers click into place like a puzzle piece. Rhys flexes his fingers, feeling the connection he needs.

“See, what I’m thinking... no, what I’m  _ doing  _ is takin’ over. I’ll be inside everything, everyone, everywhere. This is big, Rhys. Ya see--”

Rhys clenches his fist. He knows Jack would too.

Jack’s voice is low and distorted when he says:

“The human race won’t be able to fuck up anything else.”

Rhys tears his cybernetic arm from the metal cuff and then hits himself, squarely, in the jaw. No amount of bracing could have prepared him for how much it hurt. Blood seeps onto his tongue from a tooth bent sideways during the impact -- it makes him choke as it runs up and out of his nose. His vision doubles, but he forces his eyes to stay open. He blinks rapidly, trying to focus on millions of Jacks.

On every screen, Jack is holding his cheek. 

_ (Yeah, that’s called  _ **_pain_ ** _ , _ Rhys wants to say, but he’s still catching his breath.  _ It’s what happens when you’re wired into a human’s nervous system.) _

Jack’s mouth is dropped open, eyes wide. 

Then the hologram fizzles out of existence.

At the same time, the chair unlocks. 

Rhys rips the plug out and tumbles away from the chair. He scans over every screen as he pants, each one black and disconnected. Quickly, he runs a diagnostic on his brain, searching for Jack and finding nothing. Rhys pounds a fist on the floor and stands up.

Through grit teeth, he shouts into the empty room, “What the hell is  _ wrong _ with you?”

Before the last syllable finished, the cold barrel of a gun zooms from the ceiling and presses against his left temple. 

"Aaand how did I see that coming?" Rhys mutters.

There’s a crackle on the screen, briefly, before it goes dead again. But from the speakers, Rhys does hear Jack say, "You’re gunna betray me eventually."

Rhys stares at the crackling monitor. " _ What _ are you  _ talking  _ about?"

The screen wavers again.“You're going to betray me. By dying.”

Admittedly, Rhys doesn’t have anything for that. He's thrown off by the sudden clarity of it all. Rhys' breath holds and he licks his lips. "Angel," he exhales in dawning horror, "You didn't know she was dead until you were plugged into Helios."

Suddenly the monitors glare to life with clapping Jacks all around. "Bingo, dingo! Dingdingdingding! Big round of applause for Ol' Smartbrain here! You think you've got it all figured out, don't you?"

"There's-- there’s more," Rhys says dryly.

"Are you sure?" Jack snarls, pressing the gun closer.

Rhys blinks a few times before saying, "You're not just afraid of being alone. You're afraid of being abandoned by everyone,  _ forever _ !"

Jack’s voice is indifferent, but the monitors flicker on. "Huh, you know? Maybe you're onto something. Buuuut I don't really care. You think knowing anything about me is gonna spare you, fanboy? Jesus, you're naïve!"

But despite what Jack said, it did matter. It changed everything. He would never get to bury his daughter or talk to her again -- he even died right after her. He’s grieving.

Rhys looks into Jacks eyes and says, "I'm sorry about Angel."

"Oh, cut it out with the theatrics, you don't really care," Jack spits with venom. "You don’t even know her. No one did, not like me." Jack folds his arms. "She was a genius, you know. She wouldn't forget anything, no matter what. Do you know what her last words were after she  _ begged  _ to be killed?"

Rhys shakes his head. 

" 'You're an asshole, Daddy.' " Jack gives a tiny scoff that hides a sigh.

"Uhm…" Rhys says, gently pushing away the gun at his head. "I know I’m gonna regret this, but… I do, uhm, care. You…" he points to his head before pointing at the monitors. " _ know _ I care…. don't you? We're friends, aren't we?" The words sound goofier and goofier as he speaks. "Pals…."

“Uhm, hello, I just told you my daughter’s last words. Could I have a moment of silence? Jesus. You always make everything about you,” Jack says flatly.

“I’m trying to talk about you!” Rhys retorts, “To you! So I can help you! So I can stay with you!”

"Stay with me!” Jack’s angry face flares up on the middle screen behind the weapon. The image floods into the others as he speaks, “You were going to _ditch_ me! You said--”  
“I said I wasn’t getting cut open and letting you shove that... _thing_ in me - which I’m still not!”

“And then you said ‘I’m taking the beacon and getting out of here’,” Jack retorts.

“Only because  _ you  _ said that  _ me  _ saying I wouldn’t do it makes it easier for you to kill me! You can’t just throw a -- a homicidal tantrum every time I don’t go through with one of your stupid plans - which this was! This was really, really stupid!" Rhys bursts out. "And yeah, you make it sound like everyone in your life  _ suuucked _ , but I came  _ back  _ for you!”

Jack frowns. He grits his teeth, glaring down at Rhys. Then the monitors shut off.

“Unbelievable,” Rhys says. He kicks at the wheels on the chair, watching it spin, softly, towards the desk and bump against the endoskeleton. Every time he looks at it, his blood runs cold. "Did you always plan to put that endoskeleton in me? Just tell me.” 

The gun grapples back into the ceiling. Rhys is thankful for this.

"It started to sound good after… okay.” The screens flicker back on. “Alright, after being uploaded into Helios, yeah, but, ah-zt-zt,zzt, it’s not what you're thinking. I'm not… I'm not sa-- this isn't -- this isn't a  _ tantrum _ ." All of Jack’s screens jiggle a bit as he paces from one into the next. "I've had this plan on the backburner. I just thought I'd -- yanno, kick up the heat. Since everything was going so well."

“You had it on the backburner,” Rhys sighs sadly. 

“No-- you -- don’t -- don’t get all sentimental on me,” Jack says over the intercom. “I was gonna let you live out your precious little lifespan first. We were gunna rule this place togethe -- well, mostly me, yeah, but a good chunk for you too. Sixty-fo… ehh, seventy-thirty. It was sixty-fourty before I said it out loud. But it doesn’t matter. You’re gunna die either way.”

Rhys holds a breath and then lets it out, letting the relief quietly wash over him. “That’s what people do, Jack.”

“I won’t,” Jack growls - but not at Rhys. “But if I kill you--”

“Then I couldn’t leave you first,” Rhys finishes evenly. They stare at each other.

After a while, Jack says, “I don’t want you gone,” too softly to be calm, too steady. 

“You’ve got a funny way of showing it.”

Jack bows his head and rubs his neck. “Tell me you planned on coming back.”

Rhys crosses his arms and looks away. “I did, didn’t I?”

“I’m not sorry,” Jack announces.

Rhys breathes - deeply in, deeply out - and forces himself to sit in Jack’s chair. “Okay,” he says, “So here’s what we’re gonna do. I’ve still got access to Henderson's office -- or, Vasquez’s offi--” he stops, thinks back “... my new office.” It would’ve been Rhys’ to begin with anyway, so, fairs fair. “I need my own computer with more system permissions so I can… actually do the president stuff.” He looks up, to stare at Jack’s main monitor. “Lower the desk.”

“Bossy,” Jack says, but it lowers.

The chills at Jack following his orders turn Rhys cold. “R-Right,” He sniffs, clearing his throat, “The next step is to write an apology memo to Sasha and Fiona. They’re not happy with my…” Rhys waves a hand at everything in front of him, really, “with my choices.”

The weight of Jack’s gaze doubles, too heavy for Rhys to look up anymore. “...Yeah?” Jack asks, the hard performative tone receding. “Well… good.” Jack nods once, a hand rubbing his chin.

“Yeah,” Rhys swallows. “Wait -- not good actually. We’re down a vault.”

“We’re not down a Vault, we just need to _ find _ the Vault,” Jack says, “Stations in lockdown, remember? Still got Gortys and Hat Girl. We’ll just keep ‘em somewhere.”

“...I kinda told them I’d open the hangar bay doors,” Rhys murmurs.

“Eh, you’ve got a history of lying to ‘em, they should’ve expected this.” Rhys grimaces again. “What, truth hurts?” Jack chides.

Rhys pauses to stare blankly at the desk. "Yeah," he says, finally.

He doesn’t see Jack's expression. But Jack's voice breaks a little when he replies back, "Don't I know it."

**Author's Note:**

> Special thanks to all of my fellow contributors to this years Rhack Zine! Everyone's stuff was so fun and so inspired and it made this a huge treat to think up and write for.
> 
> Special thanks as well to my lovely beeb, @tepperzart (on twitter) for all of his edits and support, hand in hand. This fic was truly written for him most.
> 
> And special thanks to you lovelies out there giving it the read! I hope you all enjoyed it!


End file.
